The present invention relates to a management apparatus, a management system and a management method, and specifically relates to such a management apparatus, a management system and a management method, for managing (controlling) an information viewing apparatus.
In recent years, there have been proliferated in the market various kinds of information viewing apparatuses, each of which is provided with a display section, such as an Electrophoretic Display, etc., and has been utilized in various kinds of usage modes. For instance, instead of outputting conference materials as printed paper sheets, the display section is made to display the contents of the conference materials onto the information viewing apparatus based on the electric data of the conference materials stored in the information viewing apparatus in advance, so as to save the consumption of the resources.
In order to utilize the information viewing apparatus in the abovementioned usage mode, it is necessary to retain the concerned information viewing apparatus in such a state that the electric data, stored therein, is transmittable and receivable. Accordingly, the system has been so constituted that a management apparatus (called, a cradle) is provided for keeping the information viewing apparatus therein in a detachable state, so as to make it possible not only to conduct data communicating operations between the management apparatus and the information viewing apparatus, but also to charge the battery provided in the information viewing apparatus by supplying an electric power from the management apparatus.
In this connection, according to the abovementioned system, at the time when the battery provided in the information viewing apparatus has run down, it becomes impossible to use the electric data stored in the information viewing apparatus. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the residual amount of the electric power currently stored in the battery concerned.
For instance, as abovementioned technology for monitoring the residual amount of the electric power, Tokkai 2009-229912 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication) sets forth an Electrophoretic Display, which is provided with a residual amount detecting section to detect the residual amount of the electric power, currently stored in the battery, and a residual amount notifying section to calculate the displayable number of pages on the basis of the above-detected residual amount of the electric power, so that the residual amount notifying section calculates both the first number of pages, being displayable at the time when only the first rewriting sequence that consumes the largest amount of electric power among a plurality of rewriting sequences, is employed, and the second number of pages, being displayable at the time when only the second rewriting sequence that consumes the smallest amount of electric power among a plurality of rewriting sequences, is employed, so as to notify the user of both the first and second displayable numbers of pages.
As abovementioned, according to the conventional information viewing system, there has been such a problem that, when the information viewing apparatus has fallen into an unusable state due to a rundown of the battery or the like, since it is impossible to use the data stored in the information viewing apparatus concerned until the battery is sufficiently charged, the work, performed so far, should be forcibly halted.
Further, by employing the technology set forth in Tokkai 2009-229912, it becomes possible to makes the halt of the work, caused by the shortage of the battery, hardly occur. However, even when the technology set forth in Tokkai 2009-229912 is employed, the user should always gives attention to the residual amount of the battery while using the information viewing apparatus. As a result, there has arisen another problem that the user's usability is impaired.